29 Jul 2018

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has substantially delivered on its mandate and has successfully steered the country’s economy over the years in spite of the global and domestic challenges facing the country, says Minister Kenneth Matambo.

Speaking at the launch of the ministry’s strategic plan (2017-2023) and communication strategy (2018-2023), Mr Matambo said the ministry came up with some economic stimulus initiatives that were designed to boost economic activity, while at the same time avoiding the risk of burdening the economy with unsustainable public spending.

He said this largely helped the country mitigate the looming threat of recession.

“Inflation declined from 8.2 per cent in 2009 to between 3 per cent and 6 per cent since June 2013 to date. We improved regulatory framework of the country’s financial sector through our institutions such as Bank of Botswana (BoB), Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) and the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA),” he said.

Mr Matambo noted that the ministry also introduced and rolled out automated systems like the Integrated Procurement Management System (IPMS) under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB), e-filling and e-payment of tax returns under Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS), electronic funds transfer system under Office of the Accountant General and decentralisation of some services to ministries/departments and their regional offices.

Speaking on the strategic plan and communication strategy launch, Mr Matambo said while the strategic plan was partially outsourced, the communication strategy was developed in-house by a steering committee comprising representatives from respective divisions within the ministry under the leadership and guidance of senior management.

He said the launch of the two  documents set out the ministry’s goals and objectives, which they believed would make a notable contribution to the achievement of the priorities of the eleventh National Development Plan (NDP 11) and ultimately the pillars of Vision 2036 and by extension, the sustainable development goals.

“In developing the ministry strategic plan, eight key priority areas were identified and these are accelerated implementation of the public finance management reforms, strengthening of monitoring and evaluation, re-engineering and automation of systems and processes, improving production of timely and accurate statistical information, implementing the initiative to increase and widen revenue base, improving project management processes, enhancing critical skills and transitioning to the new fiscal rules,” said Mr Matambo.

He said in order to enable successful implementation of these priorities, the ministry’s strategic goals have been organised under three main strategic themes, namely operational excellence, macroeconomic and financial management excellence and strategic partnerships.

“These are expected to steer the focus towards our vision of becoming leaders and a model of excellence in financial and economic management for the prosperity of this country,” he said.

Mr Matambo urged the ministry’s employees to continue to display the right attitude, behavior and character that create an enabling environment and engender a high performance culture. ENDS